


I've Seen The Light (And It's You)

by Theycallmethanatos



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cutesy, F/M, Kissing, McMercy, Mutual Pining, Sunsets, They're so bi and so in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 07:50:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8154646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theycallmethanatos/pseuds/Theycallmethanatos
Summary: “Ya never stop bein’ a doctor, do ya, Angie?” McCree asked as he tipped his hat back.“No more than you stop being a cowboy,” Angela countered. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling quite satisfied with herself.“Would ya really change that about me?” Of course, he added a small waggle of his eyebrows as though it was all just a joke. It only half was.
The end of a hard day and hard work finds two Overwatch agents watching the sunset together.





	

Sunset framed his back, the barrel-chest sloping into a V that ended around the gunbelt he wore like a second skin. Reddish-orange played at him as though to entice him to chase the fading light. For a moment, Angela Zeigler wondered if that’s what Jesse McCree would do: ride off into the sunset, guns blazing, hat waving. Decide that one time in the ring with Overwatch was enough, that he had a train somewhere with his name on it set to take him to privacy and safety once and for all. The notion sounded so little like him, and yet, when the last of the fading daylight drew away from him, he already felt so distant. Something had called him away again. And Mercy knew it well.

 

She knew the siren call of the past as well as she knew her own voice. It sang to her in her sleep and promised her the lives of those she couldn’t save, so she no longer slept alone. It sang to her in the lab where it talked of cures she’d never discovered, problems she had not solved, so she had set up her lab near Satya’s workshop. But the past was a jealous master and kept lovers to spare.

 

“A fine view from up here, is it not?” She called to pull him from the inevitable hands.

 

“I guess you could say that.” His words were teasing, light and welcoming. “Reminds me o’ the open road.” He whistled, “Sure are some sights out there.”

  
Angela quietly approached his side, looking out as he did to the stars beginning to reflect off the sea with no sun to outdo them now. “There sure are,” she agreed.

 

“‘Course,” Jesse joked around his cigar, “I’ve seen better.”

  
“Is that so?” Angela returned just as easily, finally looking up at his face. He hadn’t shaved—he’d grown lax in that. The stubble at first had been unwanted; it just reminded Angela of how many more years they had behind them now. Worse, they covered the lines left by the months of laughter they’d shared, and that was unforgivable. But now, now that she’d come so close, she almost favored the hair.

 

Almost.

  
“Sure have. Ya see one sunset, ya’ve seen ‘em all, Angie. An’ that’ll do about right for some people, but it’s missin’ that little somethin’ extra.” Angela watched as McCree held his cigar to the side, tapping it to rid it of excess with his metal hand—another change the years had wrought, countered by her own work.

  
Mercy covered her mouth because a smile had begun to grow on it, but she couldn’t hold back the slight giggle that erupted.

  
“What’s so funny, doc?” McCree asked, looking at her with the lopsided grin that looked so much better on him now.

  
“Jesse McCree,” she began to scold, “You used to lecture for hours on the importance of the little things: coffee, bacon, sunsets especially. And now, I am to believe you’ve changed your mind?”

  
His grin only got bigger, and Angela found she didn’t miss the sun so much; the cold of night could barely touch her in light of such a view. He winked at her, and she wanted to push a hand to his silly grin or kiss it. “Haven’t changed my mind so much as I’ve seen the light, how’s that?”

  
Angela shook her head, platinum hair falling to where it needed to be pushed back. She moved her hand to do just that only to find Jesse’s hand there first, fingers brushing the locks aside. She often marveled how gentle his touch was, then and now, as long as she’d known him. The rough past, the brutal lessons had only left a soft underside to the man who, in all other ways, might seem just as tough as the life that had tried to outdo him.

  
He drew his hand back, and the cool night air seeped in. The normally pleasant feeling for the Swiss was peppered with the achingly almost comfortable notion that she preferred Jesse’s hand where it had been. She brushed the thought aside as quickly as she brushed away Jesse’s cigar from between his lips.

  
“Angie?”

  
She paid him no attention as she dropped it to the ground and crushed it with the toe of her boot. Disgustingly, it made a graveled squish and she nearly shuddered at the sensation. But Angie brushed her hands together in respect for her own great deed, and to cover up the hesitation, before speaking to Jesse in her most doctorly voice yet, “Smoking kills.”

  
Jesse stared at her.

  
Angela stared back.

  
The sun was gone, the stars were out, and Jesse McCree looked as horrified as he did amused. The longer the seconds dragged out, the more certain Angela was that it had been his last cigar too.

  
Finally, resonating off the metal exteriors of Overwatch’s base, Jesse’s laughter peeled out. Always from his belly, his hand occasionally brushing over his stomach, in all these years the sound still rang true. Angela had missed it. Once a familiar sound, echoing down the hallways and into her med bay, it had become a stranger. It had been replaced with the sound of mortar shells and gunfire, the screams of the damned begging for the angel at their side to save them even as she ran out of gauze and antiseptic.

 

“Ya never stop bein’ a doctor, do ya, Angie?” McCree asked as he tipped his hat back.

  
“No more than you stop being a cowboy,” Angela countered. She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling quite satisfied with herself.

  
“Would ya really change that about me?” Of course, he added a small waggle of his eyebrows as though it was all just a joke. It only half was.

  
Angela pursed her lips as though she were thinking it over. “Would I?”

  
“Come on, Angie.” McCree leaned in just then—or maybe he took a step closer—Angela hadn’t been paying attention, but he was suddenly so much nearer than he had been. “Whaddya like?”

  
Eyebrows raised, Angela answered with the first thing that came to mind. “I like nice people.”

  
Jesse faltered, and at once she knew she had been misunderstood. Before she could explain, he said in that deep voice of his, “I am a nice person.”

  
This time, Angela faltered. Taking in the rough and rowdy cowboy, the once young punk with a heart of gold, former Deadlock gang member, former Blackwatch agent, current Overwatch team member, she lifted a hand to his cheek. What humor had been on his face whisked away faster than the stars had settled in around them. Now he regarded her with wary eyes, waiting to see what she’d do. “Jesse McCree,” she said carefully, “You are one of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of knowing.”

  
Whatever Jesse had been looking for, he must have found it, for he stepped forward as Angela pulled back. She missed the hand that had reached for her side when she turned her gaze on the stars. All she heard was a soft, low chuckle accompanied by his soft voice, “Thank you, Angie. I’m honored.”

  
The silence between them was comfortable this time. Angela could hear his breathing, the soft sound of his clothes being patted down as he looked for another cigar that he didn’t have, and the subtle move of his heel against the ground. Closing her eyes to the sky, she inhaled slowly and exhaled a moment she felt she could live in. “The stars are beautiful tonight.”

  
“Isn’t that my line?” Jesse asked.

  
“I thought you preferred the sunsets,” Angela countered.

  
“Maybe I have somethin’ even better than that in mind.”

  
“Oh yes,” Mercy said as she turned to face him, eyebrows raised, “This light that you have seen, yes?”

 

Jesse just stood there grinning, a veritable cowboy who’d caught the sunset with his lasso. “Somethin’ like that.”

  
Stepping closer, arms crossing again, she looked him over again. It was her turn to stare at the other with guarded eyes. “Alright, Jesse, just what is this light that you’ve seen? What is so much better than sunsets and stars?”

  
Her words only made him grin further, and for a moment Angela wished he still had a cigar in his mouth so she could steal that off his face too. He mimicked her by crossing his arms and shrugged his shoulders.

  
“Is it a secret you can’t tell even to me?”

  
Jesse shook his head, his forest hair falling every which way from under the brim of his hat. “Nah, Angie, can’t you guess?”

  
Dr. Angela Zeigler was no fool, and certainly knew her social cues when presented them. The problem had always been in the belief, in sorting the high hopes she had from the reality presented. Always the doubtful optimist, she felt her heart beating away as the quiet songs in her heart floated nearer at the mention of something she’d always held her breath for. She was almost embarrassed she had to calm her own nerves, reminding them that the variables alone could negate such a promise. After all, how long had the two remained friends? Best friends, even. He’d told her everything. She knew where his mother was buried and how many times a year he visited. She knew the names of the dogs that he’d owned and the horse he’d found when he was a boy. She had even known of a certain affection that lingered in his heart years after the object had turned tail and fled. And if he’d told her that, he might very well now mean someone else entirely.

  
Still, she hoped.

  
With a purposeful draw of air, she tilted her chin back in challenge. “I have one or two hypotheses.”

  
Jesse took a step closer. “Well, now, how about I help ya out, then?” he asked.

  
“What kind of help?” Angela followed suit and took a step closer.

  
That grin that grew the crow’s feet by his eyes lit up his face. Softly, so as to only let her hear, he said, “I’ll help ya test one of those. How’s that?” He tipped his hat up and the brim no longer obscured anything. The space between them was suddenly so small, the moment more real. It was just the two of them, standing outside the Overwatch base after the sun had gone down, nearly chest to chest on the loading dock as fireflies began to shine their lights about them.

  
“That sounds...wonderful,” was all she could manage. Her heartbeat, the traitor, had begun to grow slightly erratic. Even her fingers, those of a surgeon, had begun to tremble as the song that had so long stayed soft grew louder. It sounded like the dull thump of her heartbeat in her ears, the wind playing with the wisps of her hair, the rumple of clothes as Jesse moved even closer in.

  
“Then...allow me, ma’am,” was all Jesse could apparently manage before his lips were touching hers.

  
His hand reached her cheek, and her hands reached his. It was soft, it was sweet, and Angela fell further in when his arm wrapped around her waist. She kissed him again and he kissed her back. And while there were no fireworks dancing behind her eyelids, there was peace, there was comfort, and the sound of two erratically beating hearts.

  
Jesse was the first to pull back, leaving the lingering taste of cinnamon between them. But Angela wasn’t quite ready to leave it at that, and she threw her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck where she could hide her blush and her trembling hands. She felt both arms this time wind around her waist as she was brought into a hug that was almost familiar but, this time, just a little more sure. “Hey, Angie?”

  
“I know,” she said softly, squeezing him lightly. “I know.”

  
Somewhere, a cricket began to chirp, an owl began to hoot. The night played symphonies for the pair to match the beating hearts within. Even the moon had begun to show, its light playing softly around them before Angela was finally ready to look at Jesse, though neither relinquished their hold on the other.

  
“How’d your hypothesis work out?” That grin was back, the grin that tasted faintly of cinnamon and the last of his cigar.  
Fighting a smile, Angela pursed her lips. “You know, Jesse...I believe further testing is required. After all, a hypothesis is only a hypothesis until several experiments prove it to be a working theory.”

  
He closed his eyes this time when he laughed. It was different this time, softer, and Angela wasn’t sure she’d ever heard it before. But she knew it was a sound she wanted to hear all the more of. “Well, if you’re lookin’ for some assistance in testing it out, it just so happens that I’ve got a lot of time on my hands now. I’d be more than happy to help.”

  
“Excellent. Because I was thinking...I’d test it again.”

  
“Is that so?”

  
Smiling as she did, Angela leaned in to whisper against Jesse’s lips, “Yes. It is.” She kissed him then, weaving the feelings of longing and excitement and—above all else—love into it. She hoped he heard how fast her own heart was beating, just as she heard the quickened pace of his. And for years that they’d spent apart, she tried to make up for them all with featherlight kisses to the corners of his lips, to his chin.

  
“Is it...Are the results just as good as the first time?” Jesse asked when they parted. Another half-joke, and Angela could see the cautious look in his eyes again. So ready for the letdown, to brush off rejection.

  
“Exceptionally consistent. No...better,” she said. Relief flooded Jesse’s face and his belly laugh echoed through the night again.  
They would have to talk, of course, sort out what they were. Angela knew this and, she suspected, Jesse did too. Would they tell the others? Would they keep it quiet? What did they want from whatever it was they had? The questions she had would only be put on hold for so long, but for right then, in that moment, it was just enough. No, more than enough. More than enough to hold one another among the fireflies and let tomorrow’s worries work themselves out.

  
“Jesse?” she asked softly.

  
“I know,” he answered.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so bad at summaries. Thank you so much for reading. It means a lot to me.
> 
> I love this ship a lot. Let me drive my ship into your heart.


End file.
